


Small Tales of a Small Town

by HerAld_90



Category: Night In The Woods (Video Game)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Post-Game(s), Slice of Life, introspective, times change
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-20
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-10-08 05:07:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10379193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HerAld_90/pseuds/HerAld_90
Summary: Drabbles, flash fics, and anything else that comes to me concerning one of the best video games in years. Rating will change from story to story, but never get explicit.





	1. A Job

"You're sure drinking a lot of coffee there, Bea."

"It's winter, Mae. I'm cold-blooded."

"Oh, right. Sorry." Mae ducked her head down, taking a sip from her own cup of hot cocoa (extra marshmallows, baby). They were all hanging at the Snack Falcon, for once, though what had brought about this decision to deviate from the norm, Mae couldn't recall. "So... the world hasn't ended yet."

"Nope," agreed Bea, shuffling off to refill her cup from the Snack Falcon's coffee machine.

"Nope," said Angus from where he was warming himself by the hot dog cooker.

"Nope," said Gregg, cups once more on his ears.

"So, it might not be the dumbest thing ever to consider making plans for the future..." continued Mae, leaning back against the counter and watching the marshmallows melt away.

"Certainly served me well so far," remarked Angus, sounding as curious about where this was going as the other two looked.

Make it like ripping off a bandage, Mae told herself, good and quick. "Any of you guys hiring?"

Angus spun around to stare at Mae fast enough for his glasses to nearly fly off. Gregg dropped his jaw. Bea choked on her coffee, forcing Mae to hurry over and start pounding on her back. "Sorry, sorry!"

Sucking in a deep breath, Bea coughed a final time before shaking her head. "No offense, Mae, but you've never... seemed the... job-holding type."

Remaining by Bea's side, a paw on the alligator's back, Mae thought on how to respond without letting on too much. She'd confessed the reason she'd left college to Bea, but not Gregg or Angus, and there were still so many thoughts and worries that were still only hers, her own. Potentially losing the house, for one.

"I just... suppose if you losers are gonna be bored to death on a 9 to 5, 24/7 basis, I'd feel pretty crummy not going into the ground with ya."

The silence that followed lasted only a moment and didn't really feel comfortable or uncomfortable, which for Mae was actually rather unnerving. But then Bea snorted and grabbed her coffee again. "As if I stop working at five o'clock."

"I only really get in at ten," offered Angus.

"Crimes!"

"Still," said Bea after another moment's silence, "I suppose the shop could use a regular janitor... who isn't me... I don’t think you could mess that up…"

"Gosh, Bea," said Mae, leaning back and throwing an arm around the alligator's shoulders, "you really know how to make a girl feel welcome."


	2. Art

"You ever think about maybe doing anything with those dumb scribbles?"

Mae blinked, looking up from her journal to Bea. The pair were lounging on the steps leading up to the church, watching the cars drive by. Well, Bea had been lounging, Mae content to sit crouched over like the attic-dweller she was, notebook balanced on her knees as she made little drawings of notable things she'd seen that day. "My dumb scribblings?"

"Not those specifically," clarified Bea, nodding at the notebook. "Just. You know. Your art's pretty lame, but... It's got charm, I guess? Charm goes for a lot on the internet."

"Uhhhh... Thanks?" Mae wasn't sure if this was the nicest insult or meanest compliment she'd ever received, and it was just as much a mystery which she would prefer. Deciding to put a pin in all that for later (hopefully forgetting it before that fabled later came), she instead leaned back and held her notebook above her head. Her latest drawing, the pierogi stand operator screaming as the Harley's bombarded him with eggs, stared back down at her. "Huh. Charm. Mae Borowski, World's Most Charming Webcomic...ist. Really rolls off the tongue."

“I’m starting to regret having said anything.”

Mae frowned and looked back down at Bea. Her companion was just now lighting up a fresh cigarette. As the alligator took her first deep draw, Mae had an idea. "Want me to draw you nude?"

"KHHECK HACK HACK COUGH!!!!!!"


	3. Losses and Gains

"—Mr. Cardenio, the former pastor for the church. Andrews, Gregg's sole fellow employee at the Snack Falcon. Mrs. Kravinski, director of the Possum Springs Library. Creek. The effin' assistant mayor. The high school principal... Officer Molly."

Bea drew her cigarette from her mouth, briefly contemplating jabbing it onto the piece of paper on the Ol' Pickaxe counter and letting it burn, eventually sighing and dropping it instead into the novelty ashtray Mae had bought her for Longest Night. The names on the paper still stared up at her. "That's 13, total. Crap. Effing crap."

Gregg, Bea's primary source for these names alongside Angus, leaned against the countertop and folded his arms. "Aw heck, man. I liked some of these people. Andrews was, like, an actual hard worker and stuff."

Bea nodded, keeping her gaze on the paper, on the names. It was easy, really. There'd been so many cultists down in the mines. It was impossible not to notice all the people missing after a few days. Now, a week later, they thought they had them all accounted for, dismissing anyone who happened to go on a trip at the same time.

"Mae says her parents are really freaking out about her aunt being missing," continued Gregg, seemingly oblivious to Bea's dark mood. "And like, Mae too, I guess? Though also, like, over realizing how often her aunt showed up at just the right time? After we found the arm, and after she chased that guy to the woods, and after—"

"I get it, I get it." Bea sighed, dragging a hand down her face and wishing, momentarily, she didn't keep her claws so carefully trimmed and harmless. "Dang it. Dang dang..." She didn't know how bad all this was going to hurt Possum Springs. It definitely wasn't going to NOT hurt the town. Small towns like Possum Springs simply didn't lose that many people without hurting. The only question was...

"Did we... did we kill Possum Springs?"

The three shared a look. After a too-long minute Angus spoke up, expression difficult to fully read thanks to his think glasses. "I think this is about the time Mae, if she were here, would say something unexpectedly profound. Like... Possum Springs was already on life support anyway, or something."

Bea chuckled despite everything, easily able to imagine the black cat saying something like that. But... "Mae's busy at that taco shop job interview. Why we're doing this now. Doesn't need all this junk stressing her out."

The other two nodded. Bea, retrieving her cigarette from the ashtray, felt some measure of control return to her, as if the plain awfulness of the post-mine situation and her life in general wasn't ready to consume her at the slightest mistake. Because this was manageable. She was still stuck behind that counter. Gregg and Angus were still working their (admittedly fine) asses off to move to Bright Harbor, the pizza at the Clik Clak still sucked, and Possum Springs was still dying, if a little faster than before. Nothing had changed.

"GUYS GUYS GUYS I GOT THE JOB!"

Bea nearly swallowed her cigarette, hacking it out as Mae came bouncing into the store with a ridiculous taco-shaped hat perched atop her head. By the time she managed to catch her breath, Mae and Gregg were already well into one of their moments.

"Too bad the deep fryer didn't explode and douse you in boiling oil!"

"Too bad you didn't slip on ice on the way here and fall into the street right in time for a big rig!"

"Too bad your new day shift manager didn't snap and take a cheese grater to your throat!"

"Too bad you didn't step on one of those power lines downed by all the snow!"

Bea didn't know why she did it. Countless such moments had passed in front of her without comment. But that day, before she could stop herself, "Too bad you didn't fall from one of the power lines on the way here and crack your head open on the sidewalk."

If Mae had looked happy before, now she looked ready to ignite into a miniature sun from her joy as she turned to grin at Bea. A sound that might have been a squeal got the glass vibrating as the little cat hopped in place. "Band practice! Now! Then I'm gonna treat all of you to tacos! Or well, technically my mom is gonna treat you all to tacos since I start work tomorrow and don't have a paycheck yet, but that's beside the point!"

Band practice and free dinner. Yeah, thought Bea, locking up the register as Mae led the others out the door, all talking away about the possibilities of money. That sounded nice. Mae getting a second paycheck (night janitor for the Ol' Pickaxe paid peanuts) sounded nice. A productive use for all that energy Mae wasted hopping around town sounded nice. And this little victory had put a genuine smile in the cat's eyes, which was nicest of all. And right then, with everything else going to the gutter for Bea, "nice" was just fine.


End file.
